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Wisc. Flags Flown At Half Staff

WISCONSINREPORT.COM (01/10/2011) - As the accused assailant of critically wounded Arizona Congressional Democrat Gabrielle Giffords was preparing to be officially charged, Republican Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was ordering flags to be flown at half staff today. Jared Loughner, 22, is charged with one count of attempted assassination of a member of Congress, two counts of killing an employee of the federal government and two counts of attempting to kill a federal employee.

Loughner allegedly fired a Glock pistol point-blank at the Democratic congresswoman's head before spraying a crowded supermarket parking lot with bullets. When Loughner was finally subdued it was discovered that U.S. District Court Judge John Roll, and a 9 year old, third grade girl who was born on 9-11-2001 were both dead, as well as Gibbons assistant, and three other people. A couple of dozen others were injured in the incident.

9 year old Christina Taylor Green was taken to the supermarket on January 8th, 2011 by a neighbor who had taken the young girl to meet Arizona U.S. House Representative Gabrielle Gifffords. The brown-eyed Christina Green was an aspiring politician and had just been elected to the student council at Tucson's Mesa Verde Elementary School.

Christina's father, John Green, and his wife and son, were told by the doctor at University Medical Center that the young girl John Green called "Princess" was dead from a gunshot wound to the chest. The unidentified neighbor was shot four times but survived and is recovering from surgery.

A 20-year-old intern to U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords said he used his hands to apply pressure to Giffords gunshot wound to her head while holding her in his lap. A 61-year-old Tucson woman grabbed the gun's magazine from the gunman as he attempted to re-load, and two men tackled him. The two men who tackled the suspect have been identified as Roger Sulzgeber, who was also in line, and Joseph Zimudie, who was at a nearby Walgreens and heard the shooting.

The sheriff said the woman, Patricia Maisch, likely saved dozens of other lifes.

Judge John M. Roll had been named Arizona's chief federal judge in 2006. U.S. District Judge John M. Roll won wide acclaim for a career as a respected jurist and leader who had pushed to beef up the court's strained bench to handle a growing number of border crime-related cases.

His death Saturday stunned those who mourned the loss of a devoted, talented and gentle man. Mark Kimball, a Giffords aide who was at the shooting scene at the shopping center, told reporters that he believed the judge, who lived in the area, had simply gone to the supermarket to shop. Kimball added that Giffords had worked with the judge in the past to line up funding to build a new courthouse in Yuma.

Roll, 63, was appointed to the federal bench in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush. Roll previously served as a state trial judge and as a judge on the midlevel Arizona Court of appeals. He previously worked as a county and state prosecutor.

Named chief judge for Arizona in 2006, Roll pushed for more judges placed on the court's bench as border violence has swelled the district's caseload.

Congresswoman Giffords aide, Gabriel Zimmerman, 30, was also killed in Saturday's shooting in Tucson, Arizona. Gabe Zimmerman was Giffords' Congressional Outreach Director. He was 30 years old and recently engaged to be married. Zimmerman was a former social worker and had worked for Giffords since 2007.

Dorwin Stoddard, 76, was also a victim of the Saturday Tucson shooting. When the shooting started Saturday, he dove to the ground, covering his wife Mavy, who was shot in the leg three times. Mavy Stoddard talked to her husband, who was shot in the head, for 10 minutes while he breathed heavily. Then he stopped breathing. Mrs. Stoddard is expected to recover.

Another man who tried to protect his wife of 50 years, George Morris, remains in critical condition. His wife, 76 year old Dorothy Morris, died. George Morris, a former Marine and retired airline pilot, suffered two gunshot wounds.

Phyllis Schneck, 79, who continued to return to Tucson in the winters even after her husband died in 2007, was another person to lose her life in Tucson December 8th.

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